Most pastors of small Baptist churches see what God is calling their congregations to be and do and have laid the groundwork for accomplishing the mission, but their efforts are frustrated by “turf” battles and a failure to clarify and evaluate plans, according to a new study by LifeWay Research.

Three gay-rights activists were arrested on the campus of Baptist-affiliated Union University and others were arrested on other campuses, but not at Dallas Baptist University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.

Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research, led a group of pastors to Krakow, Poland, to explore how nontraditional churches can put their faith into action alongside International Mission Board workers in the region.

From 2006 to 2007, Baptist Chaplain Jim Kirkendall was in Balad, Iraq, where he counseled soldiers and visited the wounded and workers at the Air Force Theater Hospital and the Contingency Aeromedical Staging Facility.

It isn’t clear whether the Illinois Senate will tackle a bill to lease the state’s lottery at a special session in November. But regardless of that legislation, it is only one of a dozen states contemplating such action.

Throughout their history, Baptists have uniformly revered the Bible but passionately disagreed about what it means, historian Bill Leonard told an audience at Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary.